We built a house in Melbourne's western suburbs with one of the large volume builders and we moved into it 15 months ago. In the past 3 months we have experienced major cracks in walls, skirting boards and cornices splitting at the joins, architraves splitting from the walls and ceilings, bowing of the ceiling (visible with the naked eye) and doors jamming. These problems have occurred in every room of the house.
We contacted the builder who told us to put in a 1 metre footpath around the entire house, and build a retaining wall to stabilize the foundation, and this was to be done at our expense. Because of their unclear and contradictory (and expensive) suggestions that they expected us to do, we sought advice from consumer affairs, who agreed we had a complaint worth investigating.
Mediation took place at my house with myself, the warranty/maintenance manager from the builder, a civil engineer from the building commission and a senior conciliator from Consumer Affairs. The engineer made it clear that the builder was required to be responsible for the stability of the slab, not us. All of the repairs required have been agreed to by the builder including re-landscaping of the garden to guarantee water will drain away from the house. The engineer advised that neither a footpath around the house or a retaining wall would be required to fix the problem.
I guess my point is that without the attendance of Consumer Affairs, we could have spent literally thousands of $$ following incorrect and unnecessary solutions that were offered by the builder. Problems that we've tried to get them to address since the house was built are also going to be attended to, and this wouldn't have happened without the independent building inspection the weight of the engineer's findings and the presence of consumer affairs.
Finally, the builder is listening and has agreed to everything, with completion of all repairs to be in 60 days. The slab then needs 12 months to settle once new drainage is done, and then they have agreed to re-repair any cracks that open up because of the slab settling.
I am happy to talk to anyone about how this resolution came about. We have been so stressed about the situation of our house, and I imagine anyone in this area experiencing slab heave is going through similar stress.